SNEAKY PUFFADDERS

The lodge director was up for a weekend at Matla recently and had brought some guests for this trip. They were sitting and having a drink at the bar. As the converstaion continued we started to talk about drinks, and one in particular called a sneaky puffadder. The concoction is 1 tot of Cane, 1 tot of Vodka, half soda water and half lemonade with a dash of bitters. It tastes great and is quite refreshing but comes with a bite! You really don't feel anything until it creeps up on you.

Talking about sneaky puffadders, it's getting quite warm in Madikwe now and this heat usually brings out the snakes. One night Kim and I were having a small braai. We poured ourselves a drink and I went out to start the fire. I had a few peices of wood in our little boma area from the last fire we had made. As I picked up the wood I noticed a puffadder under the pile, curled up and ready to strike. Luckily I moved away in time and the snake was pretty chilled. We got the snake tongs and stuck him in the cooler box and released him away from our house.

Puffadder bites are extremly painfull and there is a large amount of swelling with the venom causing necrosis(rotting the flesh). Not very popular. They are among one of the most common snakes forund in Africa, found from the Cape all the way up into Northern Africa.

A FEW PICS FROM MADIKWE !!!

Just a short one today. I wanted to post a few pics that I have taken of scenery and animals in Madikwe Game Reserve.


You Gotta love the bush !!!!!

another awesome sunset in Madikwe.

sunset at Thlou dam.

A pride of lions at Tholo dam with great afternoon sun.

A spotted bush snake that I found at the lodge and released him into the garden, completley harmless and very beautiful.

Moon over the Enselbergs. Pretty cool just because its during the day.

Another awesome sunset in Madland !

 

1 STEAK....5 PEOPLE....THIS IS HOW WE BRAAI "NYAMA"

So we recently had Kim's mates come and stay with us in Madikwe. Rebecca, Mark and little Leo from Melbourne. Kim and I had a great time with them and ate outside next to the fire almost every night they were with us. One night we decided that we would braai a nice big peice of steak, 2.7 kilos to be exact. Thats one big peice of cow!

We usually make a fire in the boma area and then take some coals out and cook it in the braai place, but tonight we just cooked it on the fire right there. It was done just right and we all enjoyed it....What more can you ask for....Good Company, Hot Steak and Cold Beer! 

CAUTION!!!! RANGERS AT WORK!!!

We have been spending an incredible amount of money on the roads in Tau's concession to fix them up, every time the road contractor comes out it ends up being a couple of hundred thousand Rand to do repair work. So the Owner baught a tractor, trailer and some other bits and peices for the rangers to fix roads with. This is proving a big hit with the rangers as they now don't have to do all the road work and loading of sand by hand! It's nice for me too as I used to be a ranger and was having to do this by hand. 

Here are a few pics of the Tau Rangers hard at work...I pulled rank and drove the tractor for a bit! Lol! 

Grant and ernest getting stuck in

loading sand in the quarry

another load.

Elephants and puppies

Kim and I have recently gotten ourselves a Jack Russel cross Fox Terrier puppy, she is extremly curios and also very naughty. Her name is Jaz and she is now 9 months old. we have a big yard for her to run around in and play, but as most dogs do, she has an overwhelming urge to explore and chase shit!(not that she has ever caught anything). Things like birds are squirrels are her best, but anything that she can get her teeth into will do!

As we live in Madikwe, the only thing that seperates us from the bush are 8 thin strand of electrified wire, and Jaz loves getting under them and going out to explore. One day Kim and I had come back from the lodge and saw that there was a large herd of elephants coming right past the front of our house, towards the lodge waterhole. Kim had quickly gone to grab her camera when Jaz raced outside. This was one of the first times she had ever seen such a big animal and we thought that she would make a break for the fence and go for the chase, instead she sat on the deck and watched as this big elephant walked by. It's always a worry for Kim and I as Jaz has a mind of her own and like I say, she digs to chase shit!